Some Early Lines – Old Railway Companies – Stourbridge Railway

Some Early Lines

Old Railway Companies

Stourbridge Railway

Stourbridge Junction, 1903.
http://www.stourbridge.com

This was incorporated on 14 June 1860, and before building began, a 5-mile extension to join the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley Railway at Smethwick had been authorised on 6 August 1861. The line was then extended further to the GWR at Handsworth, giving a direct link with both New Street and Snow Hill stations. The Company was closely related with the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway and was worked by it (or more precisely by the West Midland Railway) from opening, to Cradley Heath on 1 April 1863, Old Hill on 1 January 1866 and Smethwick on 1 April 1867. An Act of 16 July 1866 (29/30 Victoria c221) authorised amalgamation with the GWR five years after completion, but this was amended by 32/33 Victoria c109 (12 July 1869) which implied that union could take place earlier, without specifying when. Some authorities take this to be 1870, but working agreements were made on 31 July 1871, unnecessary if amalgamation had already happened. Perhaps 1872, as intended by the original Act, is the answer.

Stourbridge Junction is one of two railway stations serving the town of Stourbridge, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies on the Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line and is the junction for the Stourbridge Town Branch Line, said to be the shortest operational branch line in Europe. The other station serving Stourbridge is Stourbridge Town at the end of the branch line.

Stourbridge Parry People Mover

RichardRothwell – Own work
A Class 139 unit under trial at Stourbridge Junction, 28 January 2009.

Taken at Stourbridge Junction 9:20 am 28th Jan 2009. The train is undergoing trials, and still does not have the steps in place.
License details   : RichardRothwell at en.wikipedia, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following licenses: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution